The Rebel Queen: Film Screening + Director Q&A

The Rebel Queen reveals the forgotten history of Maharani Jindan Kaur: the firebrand female leader who stood up against an Empire.

Wife of one Maharajah and mother of another, Jindan Kaur was the last Sikh ruler of Lahore whose life is almost unbelievable. Forcibly separated from her son, imprisoned by the British, escaping and travelling hundreds of miles to safety, she led two wars against the British and refused to cooperate right up to the end of her rebellious life.

World experts and commentators along with rare archival images reveal the triumphant and tragic story of this fearless challenger to British Empire.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with the director, Michael Singh, and historian and author, Christy Campbell, author of The Maharajah’s Box.

About The Speakers

Michael Singh

Michael Singh is a writer and director, his latest film is the award-winning 90-minute documentary Valentinio’s Ghost: Why We Hate Arabs and Muslims. He is currently editing Riding the Tiger: The Sikh Massacres of 1984, to which he was a witness as a young man. Michael wrote and directed the award-winning Rebel Queen, 37 minutes, in 2010. The Bradford Literature Festival screening is its premiere outside the United States.

Christy Campbell

Christy Campbell was born of Irish parents in London in 1951. He read Modern History at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. He has worked for several national newspapers and was defence correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph, reporting from wars in the Gulf, Cambodia and Bosnia. His first book The Maharajah’s Box: The Life of Maharajah Duleep Singh, was published in 2000 and since then he has authored a prize-winning sequence of historical investigations.

About The Chair

Remona Aly

Remona Aly is a journalist, commentator and broadcaster. She writes for The Guardian, is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and is a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Something Understood. Remona also guest presents Things Unseen podcast and was Deputy Editor of emel, a British Muslim lifestyle magazine.